Commentary on Harmony of the Law Volume 2 Complete John Calvin (continued)
JOHN CALVIN
26. And the prince of the tribe of the children of lssachar, Paltiel the son of Azzan.
26. Et de tribu filiorum Issachar, princeps Paltiel illius Azzam.
27. And the prince of the tribe of the children of Asher, Ahihud the son of Shelomi.
27. Et de tribu filiorum Aser, princeps Ahihud filius Selomi.
28. And the prince of the tribe of the children of Naphtali, Pedahel the son of Ammihud.
28. Et de tribu filiorum Nephthali, princeps Pedahel filius Ammihud.
29. These are they whom the Lord commanded to divide the inheritance unto the children of Israel in the land of Canaan.
29. Isti sunt quibus praecepit Jehova, Ut distribuerent haereditatem filiis Israel in terra Chenaan.
1. And the Lord spake unto Moses. God here undertakes the office of a prudent and careful father of a family, in fixing the boundaries of the land on every side, lest their right to posses it should ever be called in question. He begins on the southern side, where it must be observed that the district of Bashan is included in it, and all that the Israelites had acquired before their passage of the Jordan, so that this addition was approved of by God. He extends this part as far as the wilderness of Sin, and the borders of Edom, and brings it round from Kadesh-barnea to Addar, and the passage of Azmon, and, finally, to the stream which washes 655 the city of Rhinocorura, in the immediate vicinity of Egypt; for by "the river of Egypt" the Nile is by no means to be understood, the course of which was not at all in that direction. The southern boundary, therefore, was from the Mediterranean Sea towards Arabia. On the western side the land was washed by the Mediterranean Sea, which is here called "the Great Sea,"
There has been much discussion amongst the commentators on this point. The conclusion to which Dr. Kitto comes, after due examination of the opposite theory, is, that "the river of Egypt," when mentioned as a boundary, cannot mean the Nile. "The present 'river of Egypt' (he adds) probably denotes a stream which formed the extreme boundary of the country eastward of the Nile, which Egypt, even in these early times, professed to claim, and which derived its name from that circumstance. It was probably not far from El-Arish, to which, under the name of Rhinocorura, it is expressly referred by the Septuagint. That it was a stream somewhere between the southern frontier of Palestine and the Nile we are deeply convinced." — Illustr. Com., in loco.